There’s millions of new American gun owners in just this past year. I’m wondering how many are practiced up, how many pay attention to stupid representations of gun skills such as we see in the Sicario films. Mind you, I haven’t seen those films, just some YouTube clips. But with that little exposure even I, also a fairly new first time gun owner (Glock 19), know that what happens above should not be imitated by anyone ever, not only the extra-judicial “justice” wrought by our Sicario friend, but also his grip. He’s held up as being the best of the best, but if you take lessons in, say, how to grip a pistol from him, you will die the first time you try to defend yourself or others, say, in a church setting, from unprovoked, mortal aggression being actively delivered against the innocent by a mass shooter, so to speak. No offence to you, Benicio del Toro, sir! I’m guessing that you’ll agree with me that your advisers on gun use baited you into doing stupid things.
If you follow the fiction of the film above, you’ll get off your first shot, sure, maybe even on target (I doubt it), but because of the stupid grip pictured in that “front picture” chosen for the video above, you’ll not be able to get off a second shot before you are shot yourself. Your gun will jam, no matter what. It makes me think that our Sicario friend has never shot a pistol in his life. Notice the thumb of the weak hand pressed super-tightly against the slide? That cannot work in real life. Cannot. In fact, in the last two seconds of that video above, when he takes out the cartel boss, you see that his thumb is pressed hard against the slide, and the slide only slightly and slowly moves back, like 1/2 inch. If it was like that for the first shot of el Sicario against the wife of the cartel boss in the video above, the gun would have jammed, the boys would still be alive and the boss man would have shot our Sicario guy quite dead. The slide has to be completely free to slide, not only to eject the used casing, but to load up the next round. Don’t be the thumb on the slide guy.
Even worse, don’t be the guy who takes advice from cool special ops guys who condescend to tell you stuff while downing beers and thinking you’ll never be in a situation to use the information anyway, and so they are not careful about what they say about scenario usage. For instance, in the video below get a load of this most stupid use of a pistol that may have come from mis-taught or misinterpreted but otherwise in any other situation good training. It’s looks cool because in the situation its use is super sarcastic and likewise condescending. But this is all going to make for the death of the shooter when he runs out of bullets before even once hitting his target even at point blank range. Shooting with the mistakes that are made by our Sicario friend will mean that you won’t be able to hit the broadside of a barn from inside the barn. Watch the insane gun-flip and where oh where the strong hand trigger finger goes:
It’s not because there’s anything wrong with this style of shooting. It’s because he himself gets a number of things totally wrong.
- Know that in real life, in an immediate justified defense of the innocent from an active shooter actively killing people, you’re not going to have time to use two hands in this clumsy fashion. No.
- Know that your strong hand trigger finger shouldn’t be on the slide like el Sicario. That’s going to inhibit the slide when the pistol is fired by the other hand, meaning the first shot will fire (likely off target), but that the gun will jam before you even get to the second shot. And you’ll be shot before you clear that and load up again. El Sicario tries not to hold that strong hand trigger finger hard against the slide, but it is belted around as the gun is fired, so that it’s hard pressed against the slide, or not. But it’s all wild. There is no muscle memory for the trigger finger of the strong hand to be on the slide…
- Know that your normal trigger finger is going to “get nervous” and start curling under the slide to get in the trigger well where it normally is when firing a gun, in this case, interfering with the other trigger finger already there. That’s what happens above to el Sicario. That makes for zero hits.
- Know that you have almost zero grip on the gun with just three “weak” fingers on the grip because you have your normal trigger index finger on the slide. Bad, that. This makes for insane flip, and that’s exactly what happens to el Sicario above. Don’t use this style of shooting unless you must.
So, why would this style of shooting ever be used?
Because when you lift up to aim at someone, your hands on your gun are center-x for the bad actor. Injuries, say, to your strong hand trigger finger are not uncommon because of this. So, yes, this is a legitimate exercise for which to practice a bit, with the strong hand thumb and three weak fingers holding the grip of the gun, but with the strong hand trigger finger curled up against the grip, not on the slide or messing with the trigger well. The video directly above is one of the worst examples of gun-slingerry in the entire history of Hollywood. Don’t follow that bad example, but go ahead and practice this the right way.
For your very first practice mag-dump you might get something like what I did the other day just for fun, but likely better, putting out 15+1 shots from my terribly hard-pull, grindy-trigger Glock. I tried this as fast as I could get the trigger pushed with a weak hand finger. This is not bump-firing. No. You are pushing clumsily from the side of whatever finger of the weak hand (the side bit being a stabilizing factor). El Sicario does this with the gun pushed up to the palm of the weak hand, a good idea – I didn’t do that – but he does this with the wrong angle, causing wildly off target results. You want that weak trigger finger to be perpendicular to the trigger, not at any angle at all. I made that mistake as well the first mag-dump over against a 7″ foam pie plate.
You’ll notice that most all hits are left of center. That’s because of being pulled to the side by a weak hand finger over the trigger at the wrong angle. That’s so very correctable. You’ll also notice that this was at point-blank range, something like under ten feet. Can you see the powder swirl burns on the foam plate?
Warning! Don’t try this at any range other than a private range (against soft dirt, no rocks or wood…), a range that belongs to you or a friend. Otherwise you’ll be not so politely asked to never come back. This was done at a private range.
So, why would a priest who is a newbie to the gun world have such an interest as to know such things?
Is it because of his desire to be available to chaplaining for law enforcement wherever 2a is respected? Sure.
Is it because of wanting to be available to assist those who provide church security with enhanced capacities if they decide totally on their own and never mandated by the church to carry a tool that might assist in shutting down a deadly and being delivered threat? Sure. That’s it.
The diocese encourages us to have security teams. And I think that all priests should be good guard-donkeys for the sheep of Jesus’ little flock, whatever tools they can use effectively:
Donkeys were always with the Holy Family, and not just to carry around the Holy Family and their provisions. It was also for the protection of the Holy Family from the wolves (that being a young red wolf above).
Where do I get time to do this?
- This was just some seconds on the day off, which is never a day off anyway. I didn’t do much more than this as ammo is scarce. I had lots of priest-stuff to do on the day off.
- Recreation is also important for priests. Seriously. It’s all good when skill set capacities are honed as an enjoyable recreation, even if it’s only for just a moment.
- In writing this, I’m also on a day off, but this day off is being used for another of important things in priestly ministry, discerning, praying.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 